After a few days I can now reflect upon something -- the 2016 election had an intriguing drama behind it. It has the structure of a form of literature or cinema with which most of us are familiar, and it fits the mold well. You know my political orientation well, so you can predict my bias.
At first the night seemed something to celebrate as Democrats seemed to have chances in states that they just don't win, like Georgia. Democrats got early leads, and it seemed only a matter of time. As a tantalizer, one Republican incumbent Senator (Mark Kirk) went down fast. Hooray! Then things steadily deteriorated. But not too fast. But some states that I thought would be swift wins for Democrats were slow to be called. The drama dragged on. States that I expected to be close all got called for Republicans Some Senate seats that I thought possible pick-ups for Democrats started going to Republicans. Donald Trump got a lead in electoral votes, and the Senate composition was going to get dicey. "Blue" states like Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Pennsylvania that I expected to go Democratic quickly remained on the board while Ohio, Florida, and North Carolina went to the Dark Side.
By the end of the evening the election was down to Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania... and such an empty suit (and perfect stooge for people who believe that no human suffering is in excess so long as such creates elite indulgence), and Pat Toomey, who was President of the Club for Growth, whose idea of growth is that the growth of human suffering is the key to prosperity. Frankly I would rather live in a much poorer country in which the government shows some respect for human welfare even if the country is far poorer, like India, than in some super-prosperous country in which all the increases in wealth will create only mass misery.
I began that evening in great optimism. In the end, knowing the character of Donald Trump, who will probably become one of the twenty most evil persons to ever live, I wished that I could simply walk in front of a speeding eighteen-wheeler.
Now you know what sort of story it was: as a movie it is the stereotypical horror movie. As a novel its author is most likely Stephen King. The problem is that this is not a novel or a movie. However convincing the drama, it is we who get to live the consequences. That makes it so horrible. It is the musical Cabaret without the music. It may be surprising, but I consider Cabaret one of the finest horror flicks of all because it has the key elements -- freakish characters, and the only likable characters (the Jews in the story) are doomed. In case you didn't get the point, one essential feature of a horror movie is that bad things happen to good people. As a liberal I came to believe that my political values have become permanently irrelevant in America. The sadists, ravagers, and exploiters now have all the power and the rest of us are powerless to stop the ruin of our lives.
We have been had. The play was masterful, and it couldn't have been better designed to shatter the hopes of anyone who thinks that he can be more than his economic role. People nothing more than their economic roles? They are the truly destitute. Slaves, serfs, maybe prisoners...
It may be surprising, but Donald Trump seems to be very popular among people with crappy jobs as convenience-store clerks who have little to live for but family life and the promise of Pie In the Sky When You Die. Donald Trump has promised to attack elites on their behalf -- the middle class -- to bring them down to the same level of economic distress so that they can live, as the least-well-paid part of the working class does, for happiness only in the Afterlife. The economic elites who want a social order like that of the Gilded Age in which 95% of the people suffer for the 2% want all others to lose all hope for political solutions.
I have had my emotional problems all year, and have had to get counseling for suicidal tendencies. Those are back. I can think of fates worse than death, and the sort of government that we will have will offer plenty of opportunities for fates worse than death. Man has always been far more adept in creating Hell than Heaven. America is about to go from being a dream for millions to a nightmare for millions. me included.
So far as I am concerned, death will solve all my problems. At my age I can no longer be a workhorse. I
At first the night seemed something to celebrate as Democrats seemed to have chances in states that they just don't win, like Georgia. Democrats got early leads, and it seemed only a matter of time. As a tantalizer, one Republican incumbent Senator (Mark Kirk) went down fast. Hooray! Then things steadily deteriorated. But not too fast. But some states that I thought would be swift wins for Democrats were slow to be called. The drama dragged on. States that I expected to be close all got called for Republicans Some Senate seats that I thought possible pick-ups for Democrats started going to Republicans. Donald Trump got a lead in electoral votes, and the Senate composition was going to get dicey. "Blue" states like Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Pennsylvania that I expected to go Democratic quickly remained on the board while Ohio, Florida, and North Carolina went to the Dark Side.
By the end of the evening the election was down to Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania... and such an empty suit (and perfect stooge for people who believe that no human suffering is in excess so long as such creates elite indulgence), and Pat Toomey, who was President of the Club for Growth, whose idea of growth is that the growth of human suffering is the key to prosperity. Frankly I would rather live in a much poorer country in which the government shows some respect for human welfare even if the country is far poorer, like India, than in some super-prosperous country in which all the increases in wealth will create only mass misery.
I began that evening in great optimism. In the end, knowing the character of Donald Trump, who will probably become one of the twenty most evil persons to ever live, I wished that I could simply walk in front of a speeding eighteen-wheeler.
Now you know what sort of story it was: as a movie it is the stereotypical horror movie. As a novel its author is most likely Stephen King. The problem is that this is not a novel or a movie. However convincing the drama, it is we who get to live the consequences. That makes it so horrible. It is the musical Cabaret without the music. It may be surprising, but I consider Cabaret one of the finest horror flicks of all because it has the key elements -- freakish characters, and the only likable characters (the Jews in the story) are doomed. In case you didn't get the point, one essential feature of a horror movie is that bad things happen to good people. As a liberal I came to believe that my political values have become permanently irrelevant in America. The sadists, ravagers, and exploiters now have all the power and the rest of us are powerless to stop the ruin of our lives.
We have been had. The play was masterful, and it couldn't have been better designed to shatter the hopes of anyone who thinks that he can be more than his economic role. People nothing more than their economic roles? They are the truly destitute. Slaves, serfs, maybe prisoners...
It may be surprising, but Donald Trump seems to be very popular among people with crappy jobs as convenience-store clerks who have little to live for but family life and the promise of Pie In the Sky When You Die. Donald Trump has promised to attack elites on their behalf -- the middle class -- to bring them down to the same level of economic distress so that they can live, as the least-well-paid part of the working class does, for happiness only in the Afterlife. The economic elites who want a social order like that of the Gilded Age in which 95% of the people suffer for the 2% want all others to lose all hope for political solutions.
I have had my emotional problems all year, and have had to get counseling for suicidal tendencies. Those are back. I can think of fates worse than death, and the sort of government that we will have will offer plenty of opportunities for fates worse than death. Man has always been far more adept in creating Hell than Heaven. America is about to go from being a dream for millions to a nightmare for millions. me included.
So far as I am concerned, death will solve all my problems. At my age I can no longer be a workhorse. I
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated Communist but instead the people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists -- Hannah Arendt.